gettin' lucky in Dublin, Ireland...

snappin' artsy shots with lizzie's camera

Okay...not really, but Lizzie got serenaded to by a bunch of Irish men...I realize I promised I would blog everyday after not blogging for a week and I realize I am already down on my game...so far, i've only missed a day, so we are getting somewhere. This being my second big trip within the Oxford portion of European Studies...it is very necessary to blog about...

After our third High Table dinner, I decided to stay in a write a paper seeing as how our wake up call was coming at 4 AM the next morning...well, were to meet at 4 am so the wake up call was coming at 3:30 am, much too early for me to be a functioning human let alone with a healthy dose of spirits inside of me...we left promptly for London-Heathrow at 4:23 am.  We arrived at Heathrow around 5:45 for our 6:45 departure from London to Dublin, got checked in and OBVIOUSLY got stuck in security because I tried to hide my liquids from them. Let's just say Heathrow is WAY stricter than Raleigh-Durham International Airport...after that 20 minute problem, I walked 10 minutes to the gate. We flew an airline by the name of BMI and there were maybe 4 people other than our group of 30 on the plane and that instantly made me nervous, why did it make me nervous? ask my mom.

our first GUINNESS at 10:30... 

We made it to Dublin at an early 8:05 am and we were lucky enough to go on a BUS TOUR of the city as opposed to a WALKING TOUR...I was rather happy about that choice.  Our first stop came around 10:30 at the GUINNESS FACTORY, nothing like a dark dark beer to wake you up! The museum was really cool and we made our way up to the Gravity Bar which is at the top of the factory/museum.  I had my first guinness which was pretty decent but i won't be ordering another anytime soon...after the museum/factory/guinness drinking we went to Trinity College, located in the center of Dublin City, where we would be staying for the next two nights.  We all had singles and the beds were cozy, I suppose it was good enough. We grabbed a bite to eat at Subway....ugh and then took a nap.




Waking up 2 hours later was a rude awakening...we got ready and headed to a 'smart' restaurant by the name of Dobbins Wine Bar and had a WONDERFUL 3 course meal. I chose a goat cheese and red onion tart, the leg of lamb and then for dessert I chose sticky toffee pudding...not too shabby.  One glass of wine later, dinner was finished and I had to retire to Trinity College for a long night's sleep to be rested for the next day on the city.


After a great night's sleep, we woke up at 11 am and went to the Book of Kells, a 1200 year old illuminated celtic manuscript which is housed in the Trinity College Library. Then, we made our way to the National Gallery of Ireland and saw some Caravaggio and van Gogh. So far, I am loving the art on this trip. After the gallery, we walked around Dublin looking for clothes and i did a bit of shopping at H&M, I HAD TO...not too much, just a litttlleeeee bitttt.

COSMOS

That night, we were on our own for dinner so we chose a rather expensive but AMAZING restaurant called FIRE. We dined on very non-authentic Irish food including a meat and cheese plate, moroccan spiced lamb skewers and a goat cheese flatbread and plenty of red wine. It was GREAT. We finished off the meal with 2 cosmos, 1 margarita and 1 weirdo Toblerone drink (cool Meg) and no, those drinks were not all finished by me, just the ONE cosmo. Because we had to split up to go to dinner, we all met back up at the Storehouse in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. We listened to live Irish music and decent covers of American music and then we headed to some club I will forever not know the name of. After a long night on the town it was time to head in because we had a rather early departure from the college in the morning.

Glendalough, Ireland

Our next stop in Ireland was the countryside, Glendalough, it was composed of 2 lakes and a monastic village. It was raining and sort of unpleasant but I enjoyed it for the most part. After walking around in the rain for an hour, we headed to a beautiful hotel and had ANOTHER 3 course meal consisting of cream of vegetable soup, spinach and goat cheese tortellini and finishing with Bailey's cheesecake, needless to say we ate pretty well in Ireland, surprisingly enough. After lunch we had one more stop. The Powerscourt House and Garden, a home that burned to the ground after a renovation by the Slazenger family.  A while back, the house was bought by Ritz Carlton and they transformed it into a resort with shops and a beautiful botanic garden. The sun came out and we romped around the garden for awhile before we had to get back 
on the bus to the airport.

Obviously, our flight was delayed...I cannot remember the last time I travelled and my flight home was NOT delayed...better luck next time?? Oh and I had to eat Burger King for dinner...never again.  All in all, Dublin was a success--minus the BK.

the end of a great weekend!

yes, yes--i know...

I am still the worst blogger ever. It's been almost a week and a half since my last post and I have been to TWO different places to which I had to fly...laying in bed last night, I vowed that I would not let a day go by that I do not post (unless I don't have internet).  Even if I have absolutely nothing to blog about, I WILL write something...Like I said before, I have been to two places in the last week, I am only going to blog about one for two reasons...1) i have only uploaded pictures from one trip and 2) i need something to blog about tomorrow...so here goes...

alleghany alums in Madrid! 

sangria in the Plaza Mayor

Last Friday morning, after a night out, I got up at 5:30 and walked in the rain with a suitcase to the bus station.  After a short bus ride to London-Heathrow, I hopped off the bus and immediately got sick due to a bit of "motion sickness" WHAT A WAY TO START OFF AN INTERNATIONAL TRIP, AM I RIGHT? After recovering from this incident, it was time for the next one, go to security and my friend Ben the TSA officer thought it would be fun to a) pat me down and b) take EVERYTHING out of my bag only to re-scan my duffle bag, one shoe and my underwear...Ben...i have a question for you...WHAT WERE YOU LOOKING FOR?? After getting through security hell, everything started to look up. I grabbed some ben and jerry's from a vending machine and I was on my way to the gate.  The flight was hassle free, a bit bumpy but nothing I can't handle.  (Oh by the way, I didn't tell you...my final destination was MADRID) Arriving in Madrid, we did not check bags (which is GREAT by the way) my cousin came to pick us up at the airport.  We taxied into the riving metropolis that is Madrid, checked into our hotel and immediately asked to be pointed in the direction of a restaurant.  We chose a spot by the name of 'The Cheese Bar'--hmmm.  We split a cheese plate and I had a pizza...yummm. 

HAM and red wine!!!

Because we were so exhausted we proceeded to our hotel. Attempted to take a siesta and then got ready to embark on a LATE LATE night. The spanish eat lunch at 3 pm and then dinner anywhere from 10-12:00 at night. Much too late for my liking but I was determined to give it a try.  We met my cousin for dinner at a tapas restaurant called Mercado de la Reina.  We drank red wine and ate lots and lots of cured ham. It was a perfect dinner, we left the restaurant somewhere between the hours of 12:30 and 1 am...we gathered for more drinks and then finished the night at a club/bar, we danced to american music and darted past the smelly european men.  It was the perfect spanish night, granted we came in at 3 am and things were JUST getting started. We all felt pretty lame.

Javi, Dorsey (my cousin) and I at post-dinner cocktails

  

Spanish like to go out late but they also like to sleep in, which I am okay with. We slept to a leisurely 12 pm but only because I set my alarm to 11 am and forgot about the one hour time difference. We ate breakfast, they eat ham and tomatoes for breakfast...after breakfast, I mastered the metro station of Madrid. It's like a puzzle, you get to figure out where to get off, how to switch lines...it's SO fun, and I am not even joking.  We took the metro to the Grand Via where we went shopping until our 3:30 lunch reservation at La Barraca where we had paella.  Paella is a traditional spanish dish made with rice and meat and usually seafood like prawns, crawfish, etc. It was SO good, that was the recurring theme of the trip, "THAT MEAL WAS SOOO GOOD." After that fabulous lunch, we made our way down to the Prado where we saw Velázquez's Las Meninas and Ruben's 'Rape of Europa' (which is one of my favorites) The Prado is a fabulous museum and it's beautiful but rather overwhelming and we only gave ourselves about an hour which is not nearly enough time to cover enough ground to be satisfied in the Prado.  I'll need at least 10 more trips to be truly satisfied.  After our trip the Prado we got back on the metro and stopped at a place for churros.  Churros are long cinnamon sticks that are dipped in chocolate. Mmmm, yummm.  

mastering the metro station!!

paella..with crawfish, mussels and prawns...yummm

playing with my food...

We started getting ready for our next night out.  We went to dinner around 10:30 pm at a place called Lateral.  We sat downstairs in a corner and it took 5 minutes for us to be seated and about 45 minutes for a waiter to take our order...Europe neeeeeds to start tipping because I am getting frustrated because I need to set aside at least 2 hours for meals.  Nonetheless, I was surrounded by close friends and good food so by the end of dinner everyone was happy.  And because no one over here has heard of split checks, we all just threw in our credit cards and made it easy.  We ventured to another place for drinks where I ordered a yummy mojito. Unfortunately, I was feeling a bit under the weather so I was forced to turn in early but for the most part I think I experienced Madrid in a big way.  On Sunday we made our way to the Museo Reina Sofia where we saw Picasso's "Guernica" which is truly awesome. It's HUGE and next to the exhibit there is a montage of photos that shows the transformation of the painting.  We also saw some Dali.  We met my cousin for lunch at a pizza place, we were about to overdose on ham and cheese. After lunch we made our way to the last museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza where I saw works by Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Fra Angelico, Kirchner, Dix and Degas.  A wide variety of paintings throughout a broad span of time.  

churros dipped in chocolate sauce...

tapas dinner on saturday!

We made it to the airport and naturally our flight was delayed. We missed our bus back to Oxford so we payed 80 GBP for a cab back to Lincoln...all in all, it was a fabulous trip!! 

I am going to back up a little bit to show everyone a few pictures from our 2nd High Table and our Pimm's reception with Dr. Catto! Better late than never, right?